(This was done with BUG, installed as custom asset, so you should be able to open the savegames.)
As some of you already know from my "Random Questions"-threat, I have played a game lately that was nearly ruined by the messed-up colonial maintenance mechanic. Regardless, I have been documenting my progress, in order to get your feedback on what I have been doing. I will provide a screenshot and a save every 10 turns along with a short explanation of that I have done.
A few things to preface here, as I already assume you will criticize these aspects of my play:
1) I have no idea how to tech strategically. Every time I finish a tech, I look at my options, not just immediately, but also techs that might be two or three steps removed, to see what will yield the biggest benefit.
Especially with the earliest techs I feel I am really getting better at this, prioritizing those techs that my workers or city placements need right now over those of strategic importance. For instance, this is why I research wheel/pottery quite late in this game, because I didn't have a chance to build cottages or granaries before, as I had (what I perceived to be) more important things to do.
Once the early techs are done, however, I am pretty helpless, to be honest. I am aware of some of the benefits of the various techs, but I have no idea how to formulate that into a strategy. Who knows, maybe you find my research order defensible. I will provide it here before-hand, but it will probably make more sense to see in my turn-by-turn updates what I researched at what stage of my game. I feel I need to know what viable mid-term goals should be for the Classical period of the game, that way I have some guidance, way markers to help me build a strategy around them.
2) Specialists. I was playing a PHI leader and I used virtually no specialists all throughout the game. There were two instances where I did, one was a city that ran out of tiles and the other was when I researched Communism, where I wanted my next GP to coincide with that discovery, so I could fire a GA to adopt SP (which would otherwise cause 2 turns of anarchy) and also change to CS and some other civic I can't remember right night. (And yes, that is a terrible waste of a GA, but that is another area that I have yet to master... or even learn, tbh) Not counting GGs, I had maybe 6 or 7 GP in the entire game (the cost for one was at 800 for the last one I got, I think). So... there is definitely room for improvement here.
But let me share my reasoning for not using them regardless: I didn't get the Mids. No stone, no IND made me less than confident I would be able to make it, plus my location made me think GLH would be a pretty sweet deal. So no Representation early on. Without factoring in the effect of GPs, it seemed that a scienist is just not worth losing the food and commerce from e.g. a developed cottage. I never felt that I had enough food to really afford specialists, but at the same time, I built cottages, didn't focus on farms, maybe that was wrong? You will probably be able to tell from my saves / screenshots. I also think that there was exceptionally little food on my island. Do you agree?
3) Vassal management: I didn't actually fully defeat any AI, I just took them as vassals as soon as they were ready to capitulate. In the beginning I did this to save maintenance costs, but after SP it didn't really matter. I just did it then, to reduce micro management - and time, moving on to the next target more quickly. I did, however, have some problems with my vassals. I kept having revolts in their previous cities, can't help but think that they must have been spamming spies to cause those. Is that a thing? If so, should you return cities to your vassals after subjugating them? Nidaros, the Vikings' capital ended up being one of my best cities, don't think I'd want to give that up, but then again losing 3-5 turns of productivity in 5-6 cities about... 5 times during the game... gee, I don't even want to calculate how many hammers and GPT / beakers that cost me!!
There are also things I have learned either prior to this game or during.
1) Wonder whoring. I didn't do it this time, I went pretty conservative on wonders and I think it tought me a valuable lesson. There were some wonders I should have probably built (Colossus being one), but it worked out for me. I built only the GLH and TGL - in the same city, which was probably a bit stupid. Then again, I ended up always getting the GP I wanted
2) Mid-game improvements. For the first time I have built windmills (meh), watermills (wow!) and workshops (O.M.F.G.). What a game changer! My military town ended up building Destroyers in a single turn, that's pretty sweet, I don't think I've ever experienced that. I have yet to figure out the perfect combination of improvements per city, but I am getting better, that is a good feeling. Yet, I need to get a handle on how to strategically place improvements with a game plan in mind.
3) Construction: I've never teched this before until I needed it for medieval techs. Silly me! Elephants and Catapults are pretty sweet! Shame you can't upgrade catapults to trebuchets, though.
4) Strategic warfare: Attacking the AIs resources makes a big difference! When I took on Frederick towards the end of the game, I went straight for his two oil wells, only 2 turns after he had built them, to prevent him from countering my destroyers with his own. That made my attack much easier. I will do the same in the future with iron, horses, ivory and copper. Of course, in earlier times, troop movement isn't as flexible, so I can't do that so easily.
I also have some questions, pretty random:
1) Do forts do the same as specific improvements? I seem to get the resource, when there's a fort on it. If so, isn't this a super cheesy way to get oil the turn you discover Combustion rather than having to build wells?
2) Can you only build a watermill on one side of the river? Annoying, but makes sense, I guess.
3) Would you demolish towns to build more workshops in your main production city? Or should there never have been cottages, but farms instead? But what if there is no water?
My research order:
Mining -> BW -> AH -> Sailing -> Myst -> Masonry -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing -> Alpha -> Maths -> IW -> Construction -> HBR -> Hunting -> Currency -> CoL -> Calendar -> Compass -> Aesthetics -> Polytheism -> Literature -> Philosophy -> Metal Casting -> Machinery -> Optics -> Paper -> Education -> Liberalism -> Astronomy -> Engineering -> Gunpowder -> Chemistry -> Steel -> Military Science -> Scientific Method -> Communism -> Economy -> Military Tradition -> Constitution (the rest I didn't write down)
Here are the screen shots. The problems with the colonial maintenance occurred between 100 and 110.
I guess the further the game progresses, the less useful the screenshots get... sorry about that, couldn't get more on one screen!
[/SPOILER][/SPOILER]
As some of you already know from my "Random Questions"-threat, I have played a game lately that was nearly ruined by the messed-up colonial maintenance mechanic. Regardless, I have been documenting my progress, in order to get your feedback on what I have been doing. I will provide a screenshot and a save every 10 turns along with a short explanation of that I have done.
A few things to preface here, as I already assume you will criticize these aspects of my play:
1) I have no idea how to tech strategically. Every time I finish a tech, I look at my options, not just immediately, but also techs that might be two or three steps removed, to see what will yield the biggest benefit.
Especially with the earliest techs I feel I am really getting better at this, prioritizing those techs that my workers or city placements need right now over those of strategic importance. For instance, this is why I research wheel/pottery quite late in this game, because I didn't have a chance to build cottages or granaries before, as I had (what I perceived to be) more important things to do.
Once the early techs are done, however, I am pretty helpless, to be honest. I am aware of some of the benefits of the various techs, but I have no idea how to formulate that into a strategy. Who knows, maybe you find my research order defensible. I will provide it here before-hand, but it will probably make more sense to see in my turn-by-turn updates what I researched at what stage of my game. I feel I need to know what viable mid-term goals should be for the Classical period of the game, that way I have some guidance, way markers to help me build a strategy around them.
2) Specialists. I was playing a PHI leader and I used virtually no specialists all throughout the game. There were two instances where I did, one was a city that ran out of tiles and the other was when I researched Communism, where I wanted my next GP to coincide with that discovery, so I could fire a GA to adopt SP (which would otherwise cause 2 turns of anarchy) and also change to CS and some other civic I can't remember right night. (And yes, that is a terrible waste of a GA, but that is another area that I have yet to master... or even learn, tbh) Not counting GGs, I had maybe 6 or 7 GP in the entire game (the cost for one was at 800 for the last one I got, I think). So... there is definitely room for improvement here.
But let me share my reasoning for not using them regardless: I didn't get the Mids. No stone, no IND made me less than confident I would be able to make it, plus my location made me think GLH would be a pretty sweet deal. So no Representation early on. Without factoring in the effect of GPs, it seemed that a scienist is just not worth losing the food and commerce from e.g. a developed cottage. I never felt that I had enough food to really afford specialists, but at the same time, I built cottages, didn't focus on farms, maybe that was wrong? You will probably be able to tell from my saves / screenshots. I also think that there was exceptionally little food on my island. Do you agree?
3) Vassal management: I didn't actually fully defeat any AI, I just took them as vassals as soon as they were ready to capitulate. In the beginning I did this to save maintenance costs, but after SP it didn't really matter. I just did it then, to reduce micro management - and time, moving on to the next target more quickly. I did, however, have some problems with my vassals. I kept having revolts in their previous cities, can't help but think that they must have been spamming spies to cause those. Is that a thing? If so, should you return cities to your vassals after subjugating them? Nidaros, the Vikings' capital ended up being one of my best cities, don't think I'd want to give that up, but then again losing 3-5 turns of productivity in 5-6 cities about... 5 times during the game... gee, I don't even want to calculate how many hammers and GPT / beakers that cost me!!
There are also things I have learned either prior to this game or during.
1) Wonder whoring. I didn't do it this time, I went pretty conservative on wonders and I think it tought me a valuable lesson. There were some wonders I should have probably built (Colossus being one), but it worked out for me. I built only the GLH and TGL - in the same city, which was probably a bit stupid. Then again, I ended up always getting the GP I wanted
2) Mid-game improvements. For the first time I have built windmills (meh), watermills (wow!) and workshops (O.M.F.G.). What a game changer! My military town ended up building Destroyers in a single turn, that's pretty sweet, I don't think I've ever experienced that. I have yet to figure out the perfect combination of improvements per city, but I am getting better, that is a good feeling. Yet, I need to get a handle on how to strategically place improvements with a game plan in mind.
3) Construction: I've never teched this before until I needed it for medieval techs. Silly me! Elephants and Catapults are pretty sweet! Shame you can't upgrade catapults to trebuchets, though.
4) Strategic warfare: Attacking the AIs resources makes a big difference! When I took on Frederick towards the end of the game, I went straight for his two oil wells, only 2 turns after he had built them, to prevent him from countering my destroyers with his own. That made my attack much easier. I will do the same in the future with iron, horses, ivory and copper. Of course, in earlier times, troop movement isn't as flexible, so I can't do that so easily.
I also have some questions, pretty random:
1) Do forts do the same as specific improvements? I seem to get the resource, when there's a fort on it. If so, isn't this a super cheesy way to get oil the turn you discover Combustion rather than having to build wells?
2) Can you only build a watermill on one side of the river? Annoying, but makes sense, I guess.
3) Would you demolish towns to build more workshops in your main production city? Or should there never have been cottages, but farms instead? But what if there is no water?
My research order:
Mining -> BW -> AH -> Sailing -> Myst -> Masonry -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing -> Alpha -> Maths -> IW -> Construction -> HBR -> Hunting -> Currency -> CoL -> Calendar -> Compass -> Aesthetics -> Polytheism -> Literature -> Philosophy -> Metal Casting -> Machinery -> Optics -> Paper -> Education -> Liberalism -> Astronomy -> Engineering -> Gunpowder -> Chemistry -> Steel -> Military Science -> Scientific Method -> Communism -> Economy -> Military Tradition -> Constitution (the rest I didn't write down)
Here are the screen shots. The problems with the colonial maintenance occurred between 100 and 110.
I guess the further the game progresses, the less useful the screenshots get... sorry about that, couldn't get more on one screen!
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for +1
, and don't really get going until Chemistry and State Property. Getting that far into the tech tree requires something, be it farms to run specialists or towns to produce commerce, so build something until you can transition over to a workshop economy.
